BSkyB’s “strong performance” for 2014

By Chris Forrester

BSkyB’s 12-months (to June 30) results were perhaps overshadowed by the news of its planned acquisition of its sister companies in Germany and Italy, but CEO Jeremy Darroch spoke of the broadcaster’s “very strong results across the board”, with revenues for the year up 7 per cent, a 23 per cent increase in paid-for products (up 3.1 million) and doubling the growth of its core TV subscribers, up 264,000.

“We saw a particularly good performance in TV, adding twice as many new customers as last year. This growth was underpinned by the increasing quality and range of content that we offer for the whole family, making Sky the number one destination for customers who want the best choice of TV. Our entertainment channels – Sky 1, Sky Atlantic and Sky Living – now account for three of the top four slots in customers’ ranking of must-have pay TV channels while Sky Sports enjoyed its highest share of viewing in seven years,” said Darroch.

BSkyB’s core numbers are all positive, with pay-TV DTH subs up 264,000 to 10.686 million, Sky+ HD up 456,000 to 5.24 million, Broadband up 341,000 to 5.247 million, and telephony up 481,000 to 4.982 million.

ARPU is up £7 to £576, and its ‘triple play’ clients now represent 37 per cent (up 2 per cent) of the total. Even Churn has moved down, y-o-y, from 10.9 per cent to 10.7 per cent.